Where the Road Takes Me
Page 48

   He smiled sadly. “It’s you.”
   “Me?”
   “Yes.” He stepped forward and placed his hand on my waist, pushing me back against the wall.
   I set the board down next to me. “What does it mean?”
    “Red-letter days. It’s when something unexpectedly phenomenal happens.”
   I choked on my sob.
   “You’re my unexpectedly phenomenal, Chloe. You’re my red-letter day.”
   My head dropped onto his chest, but his fingers laced in my hair, tilting my face up to look him in the eyes, like he’d done so many times before. His gaze roamed my face, searching for something I knew wasn’t there. “It’s still not enough, is it?”
   My silence was his answer.
   “No good-byes?” he asked.
   I shook my head. “No good-byes.”
   “Okay,” he whispered, his lips grazing mine. “Then I guess I’m just going to have to kiss you.”
   With one hand in my hair and the other gripping my waist, he kissed me.
   It could’ve been seconds, minutes, hours—it wasn’t long enough.
   When Josh opened the door with a look of regret on his face—and an apology for interrupting us—we knew it was time.
   That last kiss was our perfect good-bye.
   Blake
   I’d been searching for days for the words—something bigger and greater than I love you—and I’d stood there, during our last hours together, with nothing to say. But then she’d asked about the red ink, the red letters, so I’d told her she was my unexpectedly phenomenal.
   But it hadn’t been enough.
   There’d been no words exchanged after the kiss, just a silent agreement that it had been our good-bye.
   I watched the seconds of the clock tick by, waiting for her shift to be over. I was so consumed by the clock on the wall that the ticking of the seconds matched the thumping in my chest. Then Josh nudged me with his elbow. “She’s leaving.”
   My eyes snapped to the exit, where she was walking out the doors, skateboard under her arm.
   My heart stopped, but the ticking got louder.
   Or so I thought.
   But I had it wrong.
   The ticking stopped. But my heart thumped harder.
   And suddenly, everything that had happened in the past three months flashed before my eyes. Like a predeath slideshow. Only it wasn’t death. It was Chloe. All Chloe.
   I bounced on my feet.
   And looked from the clock.
   To the door.
   To the clock.
   Back to the door.
   My hands fisted.
   My body went rigid.
   I turned to Josh.
   He was smirking.
   “Josh . . .”
   That was all I had to say for his smirk to widen. “Hurry up, dude! She’s leaving!”
   And then I ran.
   Out the exit.
   Through the parking lot.
   And to her car.
   She was pulling out of the spot.
   I jumped into the passenger’s seat.
   Literally, jumped.
   She hit the brakes, her eyes wide. “What the hell are you doing?”
   “The Road.”
   “What!”
   “Just drive!”
   She stared a moment before a huge smile took over. “Are you sure?”
   Adrenaline pumped through my veins. “Just drive, Chloe.” And for a split second, I panicked. Maybe she didn’t want me there. “Please?”
   Her eyes lit up. “Oh my God,” she mumbled, before hitting the accelerator and peeling out of the parking lot.
   We drove twenty minutes out of town before she pulled over. Her smile never faltered and she didn’t say a word. But when the car finally came to a stop and the squeal of her hand brake filled my ears, I got nervous.
   She pushed open her door and stepped out.
   I followed.
   She started hastily walking down a hidden path, and it was only then that I realized where we were. Her mom’s lake. I had been too preoccupied, watching her drive, waiting for her to stop and kick me out, to notice where we’d been going.
   She paused for a moment after the trees cleared and the lake was in view. I saw her shoulders lift, and I could picture what she was doing. She would have her eyes closed, be filling her lungs with the clean air that surrounded us.
   I cleared my throat and stood next to her. “Chloe?”
   She turned to me, confused, then a hint of a smile played on her lips. She took my hand, linking our fingers together, and led me to our rock. Or at least that was what I called it. A flat piece, hanging over the water’s edge. We had sat there, together, more times over the past nine weeks than I thought anyone had in an entire lifetime. She sat down, legs crossed like usual, and pulled me down with her. I sat behind her, with my legs on either side of her and my arms wrapped around her waist.
   It was perfect.
   And then it wasn’t.
   “What are you doing, Blake?” She sounded so sad, I almost regretted getting into the car with her. Almost.
   “I’m not ready to lose you.”
   She tilted her head to look up at me. I kissed her. Just once. I couldn’t help it. She smiled against my lips, but when she pulled away, her smile was gone, replaced by a sadness that had the power to destroy me. “That’s not an answer,” she said.
   I tensed. She was right. I tried to think of something that would satisfy her. “I have a proposition,” I said on a whim.
   “I like the sound of that,” she joked.
   “Are you being a pig?”
   “Yes.”
   We both laughed.
   “Duke’s fall semester starts August 19. After—”
   “I’ll take it,” she cut in. “I’ll take anything you give me.”
   Chloe
   I didn’t get it. I didn’t understand why he’d chased after me, or why he was still there. He knew me. He knew my story. He knew everything.
   “Stop it,” he murmured into my ear.
   “What are you talking about?” I squeezed his hands and wrapped his arms tighter around me.
   “I see the gears in your head spinning and, whatever you’re thinking about, stop it.”